Canada prepares to open Cyprus Cup against Switzerland

Canada’s women’s national team will get its 2010 season under way in earnest this Wednesday when it takes on Switzerland in the opening match of the 2010 Cyprus Women’s Cup. Having completed a full week of preparations in Larnaka, Cyprus the Canadian squad is eagerly anticipating the opening of its first tournament of the season. The Canada-Switzerland match is scheduled to kick off at 14.00 local time (7.00 ET / 4.00 PT) from the Ammochostos Stadium in Larnaka. Wednesday’s contest will mark the first-ever meeting between the two national women’s teams.



For more information on this match, please visit the following fixture link.



“Coming into this match and the tournament we want to do well of course, but we are also looking to do something more,” said head Coach Carolina Morace. “All week and in the match with Poland we have been trying to do new things and we will continue this tomorrow. I am looking forward to the start of the tournament.”



Switzerland, ranked 26th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Rankings, is preparing to continue their UEFA qualification for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011. The Swiss are currently in second place in UEFA Group 6 behind Russia. The UEFA qualification stage runs 19 September 2009 to 25 August 2010 (41 countries in eight groups playing for 4.5 qualification berths at Germany 2011).



Canadian soccer fans can follow the match live via Twitter in English at www.twitter.com/CanadaSoccerEN and French at www.twitter.com/CanadaSoccerFR. Full fixture reports will be available on CanadaSoccer.com following the completion of each match. As well, CanadaSoccer.com’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/CanadianSoccerAssoc will feature pre and post match interviews from the Cyprus Women’s Cup.



All eight of the nations participating at the 2010 Cyprus Women’s Cup will play on Wednesday in Match Day 1 of the competition. Defending champions England open their tournament against South Africa in the other match from Canada’s Group 2, while on the other side of the draw in Group 1, Scotland plays the Netherlands and Italy will face New Zealand.



Canada completed their final training session before the tournament on Tuesday morning at the Alpha Sports Complex in Larnaka. In an interesting preview of the coming week of competition, six of the eight countries who are playing in the Cyprus Women’s Cup trained at the same complex on adjacent fields, including Wednesday’s opponents Switzerland.



Following Wednesday’s opener, Canada will play England (Friday 26 February) and South Africa (Monday 1 March) to complete the group stage. From the group phase, the first-place team advances to the final, the second-place team advances to the match for third place, the third-place team advances to the match for fifth place, and the fourth-place team advances to the match for seventh place. The final day of competition is 3 March.



Canada opened its 2010 season with a 3:0 victory over Poland in an international friendly match on Saturday. Canadian captain Christine Sinclair notched two milestones in the match scoring her 100th international goal and recording her 133rd appearance for Canada; a new national team record. With the goal, Sinclair became just the tenth player in women’s international football to achieve this accomplishment.



Canada, whose title sponsor is Winners and presenting sponsor is Teck, will be looking to qualify for their fifth straight FIFA Women’s World Cup this fall at the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup.



For more information on Cyprus, please visit www.visitcyprus.com.